Photoblog 2.0

Lenten Cross, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Phyllis arranged the hellebore medley I photographed earlier into a regular pattern, with the results you see.

The Lenten Rose is a variety of hellebore, Helleborus Orientalis. It turns out that some of the Lenten Rose genome is present in most modern hellebore hybrids, so I’ve taken the slight liberty of naming this photo after both Lent and the pattern in the image, even though strictly speaking there are no Helleborus Orientalis in this photo.

Ninth Wave, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

I went over to the Marin coast on a day with a high surf warning. There was wind, too. I captured this breaking wave directly into the sun using a fast shutter speed (1/1250 of a second) to stop the motion. The sun made the wave translucent and helped increase the contrast in the patterns on the water.

Exposure data: Nikon D300, 400mm, circular polarizer, 1/1250 of a second at f/40 and ISO 200, tripod mounted.

Cadillac, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

I like the way the grill of this 1940 car looks almost abstract, and I thought it very fitting to show it in black & white.

By the way, I originally identified the car as a Packard on Flickr, and was corrected by the aptly handled Packardman1934. Great thing about a community like Flickr: no matter what it is, someone knows more about it than you, and if you post the photo and get it wrong, they will find you…seriously a big plus for a photographer with captioning needs.

I’ve been playing with shadows. The idea is to construct compositions where the shadow is as important (or more important) than the object creating the shadow. Sometimes an object and its shadow relate; other times the shadow has mostly been released, and is on its own.

Joseph’s Glasses, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

These are traditional photos, in the sense that the art lies in the photography, not the Photoshop post-processing. Actually, the issues are mostly conceptual because the setups are simple. All you really need is a room that can be completely darkened, and a harsh light that can be directed.

For these shots, I used a Lowel Tungsten spot with barn doors on a light stand (something home made would also work fine). The light was positioned opposite the camera and above the objects.

Of course, you also need something with an interesting shadow to photograph.

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Special thanks to Joseph Siroker for helping to send me down this shadowy path.

Luminous Feather, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Briefly noted: I photographed this feather yesterday at low tide on Edward Weston Beach in the Point Lobos Preserve.

Chrome, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

On Saturday I took Julian to the Classic Car Show on the Tiburon waterfront. It was lots of fun, and I enjoyed photographing the patterns and reflections in some of these chrome monsters, er, beautiful old machines. I wouldn’t be too surprised if I come up with some abstractions from the reflections when I have the time!

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Leaves of Grass, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

I realized that I needed a fast shutter speed to capture this field of grass blowing in a brisk wind. Otherwise, the pattern would have gone mushy. The point of the thing is best seen when the image is larger.

[200mm, 1/1000 of a second at f/10 and ISO 320, tripod mounted.]

Surf, Kirby Cove, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

On a recent overcast evening, with my guest from Finland, on a bluff above Kirby Cove, I waited for the night lights of the Golden Gate Bridge.

To pass the time, I tried long exposures of the white surf on the dark beach. My idea was to get the exposure as long as possible, so I used a circular polarizer to make things darker (and increase the tonal contrast). I also wanted to underexpose the overall image, because I knew I could pick up the white waves in post-processing.

This was an image that I pre-visualized in black and white, although I exposed in full digital RGB color and converted using the techniques I explain in The Photoshop Darkroom.

Dune Grass, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

We camped in a small BLM campground near Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park in Utah near the Arizona border. The kids were excited to climb to the top of the highest dunes, and I performed the photography dance with tripod in sandy conditions. Making sure that no camera gear touches the sand while getting the tripod set up and camera out always takes a bit of doing.

It was great fun watching Julian and Nicky roll down the dunes, getting coated with sand in the process (yes, I do have the photos to prove it!).

It’s disappointing that this park has essentially been turned over to dune buggy (off-road vehicle) fanatics. True, there are a few “conservation” areas set aside. But you can’t walk in them without being blasted by dune buggy engine noise. I took quite a few photos of vehicle tracks in the sand (in fact, it was hard to find pristine areas to photograph) and I may publish some track abstractions if I can overcome my disgust.

I remember visiting quite a few years ago when this place was tranquil and serene. Now it’s not. Considerring that these unique dunes are a fragile ecosystem with unique plant and animal life, it verges on the criminal that it has been so badly desecrated. Shame on the BLM (Bureau of Land Management, part of the US Department of the Interior) and Utah Parks Department who have presided over this give away to a small, noisy, and very destructive special interest group.

Paper Tree Bark, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

In Blake Garden I came across this pile of bark of a Paper Mulberry tree, Broussonetia papyritera. Very textural and translucent, and lots of fun to photograph.

Furled for Winter, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Like the winter thistle, I found this frost-covered fern frond on a chill early morning in Tilden Park.

Winter Thistle, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

The morning dawned cold (for around here).

I grabbed the kids and ran up to Tilden Park. Nicky and Julian played with frost and skim ice, a rare treat for them, and I photographed frost covered thistles. The sun came up, and I rushed them to school a bit late, all of us flushed from the outdoors and happy.

Milkweed, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Briefly noted: I found these grounded milkweed seeds along the Hidden Valley Trail near Limantour on Point Reyes.

[Nikon D300, 105mm f/2.8 macro (157.5mm in 35mm terms), three combined captures with different exposure times (1/4 of a second, 1/2 a second, and 1 second), all captures at f/36 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.]

Related image: Fancy Feathers.

Red Cyclamen, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Where the composition of a photo is about pattern, a single color often plays an important role. Cases in point: the photo of the cyclamen above is almost entirely red, with green accents, while the capture of water drops on a lupine (below) is essentially monochromatically green.

Related links: A Sense of Scale; Patterns category on Photoblog 2.0.

[Both photos: Nikon D300, 200mm f/4 macro lens (300mm in 35mm terms), and 36mm extension tube. Above: 3 seconds at f/36 and ISO 100. Below: 1/3 of a second at f/40 and ISO 100.]

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Stadium, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

This is a photo of the seating at UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium, notorious as the home of the California Golden Bears football team. The stadium straddles the Hayword earthquake fault, and is the subject of controversy between those who love groves of California oak trees and those who prefer fancy locker rooms. You can guess which side I’m on!

The other day afternoon light was wonderful. I had a Photoshop image in my mind’s eye of looking down on a stadium, with the center receding downward forever. So I decided to try my luck at Memorial Stadium.

The theme of the shoot was definitely you can’t always get what you want, but you just might get what you need, to quote the Rolling Stones. No way I was going to get a shot I could use for the basis of an infinity image like my Endless Stairs, or my Endless Doors. On the other hand, the patterns of the stairs and empty stands in the golden late afternoon light made a just swell abstract subject.

[300mm in 35mm terms, 1/160 of a second at f/6.3 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.]